2011 ICC World Cup Thread

[sahyder1]

Pakistan should have scored a lot more then 317 on this pitch. Happy to see Umar Akmal put up a good score.

Would have liked to see Junaid Khan get into the playing XI over Shoaib Akhtar today. He can be the spark that Aamer was in the 2009 Twenty20.

[The Future]

I stopped following Cricket around 2005-ish but before that Shoaib was one of my favorite players,his pace was just frightening at times.

Also it was a nice surprise seeing Waqar Younis who I worshiped as a kid is now the Pakistan coach, good stuff.

[sahyder1]

It was against Kenya but a good win nonetheless. I really like Afridi as the captain.

I was really impressed with Tahir today in the South Africa/West Indies match.

One thing that keeps disappointing me in pretty much all ODIs is the way teams handle the batting power play. I really want to see someone show some initiative with it rather then leaving it for the last 5-7 overs.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Yeah there is some scope to use power plays more cleverly.

When I was a kid I captained my club team. In the under 13s you play 8 players per team. Each team starts with 200 runs. The eight players are split into four batting pairs who each get 4 overs to bat so each team bats for 16 overs. If you're out you lose 8 runs but keep batting. It means everyone gets a bat but also encourages attacking play.

The bowling team has to bowl 7 of the 8 players (not the wicket keeper) and each bowler has to bowl 2 overs, with the two best bowlers getting 3.

Anyway, the standard approach was to put your most steady pairing as the first pair and your biggest hitter on at the end. The bowling team would bowl their best bowlers at the start and at the end.

So after a few games I just changed things around. I put our most defensive pair in at the start who would see off two of the good bowlers with just a few runs. I'd then put on a solid enough pair at the end. Our weaker batsmen would bat as the second pair while me and our other good batsman would bat third pair and totally destroy the weak bowlers. We'd get the majority of the runs and it saw us to the area finals so it worked just fine.

So basically I'd like some teams to throw in a batting power play at a time when the bowling team are just relaxing a bit too much and not expecting it.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Whoops.

[sahyder1]

It's just sad that in this day an age of statistics and strategy pretty much everyone follows the exact same formula. There are so many situations that call for a batting power play around the 30th over but no one does it. What really bothers me is when teams leave it for their 9,10,11 to use. Completely pointless.

[Plubby]

This Australia/NZ pitch is a disgrace. Can the Indians do anything right? First the Commonwealth Games debacle and now this...

[Baddar]

NZ bowled out for 206 - but considering they were 7 down after around 100 runs, it's not too shabby. How, McCullum and Vettori all put on impressive totals after the openers were awful.

Still, Australia should ease to victory.

Bangladesh-Ireland starts in around an hour.

[Baddar]

Wins for Aus and Bangladesh today, as expected.

And Dwayne Bravo will miss the rest of the tournament after twisting his knee against Seth Efrika. Looked horrible, too.

[sahyder1]

Big match coming up between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is a 4 AM start time so I might just stay up because I'm scared I'll sleep straight through the alarms if I go to bed tonight. It could very well decide who wins the group.

Waqar Younis has been talking about tweaking the lineup and I would do it one of two ways. There has been some talk about playing an extra bowler and I don't really have a problem with that.

Option 1

Ahmed Shehzad

Kamran Akmal (Wk)

Younis Khan

Umar Akmal

Misbah-ul-Haq

Shahid Afridi

Abdul Razzaq

Abdur Rehman/Saeed Ajmal

Umar Gul

Junaid Khan

Shoaib Akhtar/Wahab Riaz

Drop Hafeez and use Kamran Akmal as the opener. Umar Akmal should be coming in at 4 in order to split up Younis Khan and Misbah. Rehman has been playing over Ajmal because he is a better batsman but I have no problem with Ajmal playing over Rehman if they chose to go that way. Obviously Ajmal would bat lower down the order.

Option 2

Ahmed Shehzad

Mohammad Hafeez

Younis Khan

Umar Akmal (wk)

Misbah-ul-Haq

Shahid Afrdi

Abdul Razzaq

Abdur Rehman

Umar Gul

Junaid Khan

Shoaib Akhtar/Wahab Riaz

If they want to keep Hafeez in as an emergency bowler they should drop Kamran Akmal and let Umar handle the gloves.

[sahyder1]

277 is definitely a competitive score but about 30 short of where they could have ended up. Great work from Murali. Pakistan usually does fairly well against him but he dominated today (especially during the Power Play). Would like to see Younis and Misbah accelerate a bit earlier. Speed things up and give Umar Akmal, Afridi and Razzaq some time to do their thing.

[sahyder1]

I have no idea how he's pulling it off given how badly out of shape he is but Shoaib Akhtar has been on one hell of a role recently. 1-21 through 7 overs for him right now. Afridi though is topping him. 2 for 6 through 3 overs and that gives him 7 wickets this World Cup at the cost of just 22 runs.

[gunnar hendershow]

Sri Lanka's in too deep a hole to comeback I think, the Pakistan bowlers have been excellent today.

[Mongrel]

On the bright side for Sri Lanka, Chamara Silva's playing a knock like this now instead of the final. Seriously dire stuff.

[sahyder1]

For the love of God can someone at the PCB hear the plea of Pakistani cricket fans. Kamran Akmal needs to go. Very impressed by Shoaib Akhtar today. Same with Afridi. Shehzad and Umar Akmal have been solid too.

[The Future]

Good to see Shoaib do well, hope he keeps the form going has he renewed with the Kolkata Knight Riders? him and Shakib Al Hassan on the same team would make me shell out for their jersey.

[Baddar]

Well, time to get some sleep before the Ind-Eng game. Should be a goodun.

[Baddar]

Sehwag gone for 35 - in truth, he could've gone three times in the first over.

Ind currently 54-1 off 9.2 ovs.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

That could easily have been 360 or worse. The fact England took 7 wickets for 32 runs at the end is the smallest of all possible victories in that innings.

[Baddar]

Eng need 339 to win, and they're 8-0 off the first over.

Yeah, good luck with that.

The upside is that I'll probably get to watch the Carling Cup final in full.